


A difficult decision

by Melime



Category: Luke Cage (TV)
Genre: Community: femslashficlets, F/F, Loss of Limbs, Major Character Injury, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-30 00:23:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10865196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: There was nothing Claire could do to save Misty’s arm.





	A difficult decision

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Uma decisão difícil](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10865205) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> Written for the [femslashficlets](http://femslashficlets.dreamwidth.org/) community, challenge #085 - blood.

There was so much blood. Blood everywhere, she couldn’t even track where it was coming from, and even if she did, there was no way of knowing if she would be able to stop the bleeding in time. This reminded her of another occasion, so long ago, when Misty had been shot on that same arm, and Claire, by some miracle, had managed to save her inside their barely lit hiding place. It didn’t seem like the miracle was about to repeat itself, not that day, and Claire didn’t know what to do. She was allowing her emotions, her feelings for Misty to get in the way of making a decision.

When this happened before, they barely even knew each other, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they disliked each other. However, they had grown close over the months, closer than they ever expected to be, and now this was clouding Claire’s judgment.

Misty’s arm was crushed under a large piece of concrete, blood flowing freely where the concrete had breached the skin, and the ambulance was still fifteen minutes out, if they were lucky. The solution to Misty’s blood loss was obvious, but Claire didn’t want to think about the obvious, she wanted an impossible solution, one that would allow her to save Misty’s arm, even though all her medical knowledge told her it was impossible.

Even if Misty didn’t bleed out before the ambulance arrived, her arm had been under the concrete for too long, they couldn’t lift it, or even break the arm free, without risking crush syndrome, and that would kill her as surely as the blood loss. Even if it hadn’t been too long, she could see the arm was crushed before all hope of repair, cut nearly to the bone on impact. It was too late to get her out in one piece, it had been too late since the moment the building started falling on them, and it was sheer dumb luck that they hadn’t died before the rumble stabilized.

Misty wasn’t even awake to help her make this call, to support her. After this long, she had gotten used to looking at Misty for support, and she felt alone now, even though she had her fingers inside Misty’s arm, trying to stop the bleeding.

If Claire didn’t make a decision, time would make one for her. Misty didn’t have fifteen minutes, not unless the bleeding could be completely stopped, and there was only one way of doing that, short of amputating the arm, and she didn’t have the tools for an amputation, nor was she sure that she could do it to someone she loved, at least not like this, alone in the field, having to make a decision that would most likely make Misty hate her for it. She had to cut blood flow to the region, completely, just sever the arm’s blood supply, using something not unlike the torniquetes people made when they didn’t know what they were doing, and that usually caused more harm than good. Of course, in this case, depriving the limb of blood was the intended result, not an unwanted consequences of a well-meaning action taken in ignorance. She was horrified to even think about it, but it was the only chance Misty had of staying alive long enough for the ambulance to rescue her, and it could buy the paramedics enough time to do the amputation.

Claire wished she could ask Misty permission, or at least explain to her what was happening, but Misty had long since lost conscious, which was probably for the best. Claire knew the science behind the injury, and she had had a few patients in that situation, but she still couldn’t even imagine the pain Misty would be through if she were to wake up, at least unconscious she was protected from part of the effect, although not all; with an injury like this, she would probably still be in tremendous pain, even unconscious. Still, Misty had held on, for as long as she could, to conscience, and in the end, it was the blood loss, not the pain, that defeated her.

Claire took her belt and tied it around the arm, as close to the concrete as she possibly could, there was no point in killing more of the limb than it was strictly necessary, and she knew whatever Misty could keep would probably make the use of prosthetics easier, even though that wasn’t Claire’s specialty.

She wondered if Misty would hate her for it, never want to see her again, but in the end, it didn’t mattered. She wanted Misty to live more than she cared about her own feelings, and she was a nurse above all else, her job, no, more than that, her calling was to save lives. And Misty would live, she wasn’t about to allow Misty to just die in a dusty condemned building that had mostly fallen over their heads. No, Misty would get to a hospital, safe, where she would recover, and maybe hate Claire for what she had to do to save Misty’s life, but the important thing was that she would live.

It was the first time Claire had to make such a big decision for someone she cared about, and it was as difficult as she thought it would be. This was why doctors and nurses couldn’t work on their relatives and loved ones, it was too easy to have one’s judgment clouded by feelings, because medicine sometimes was about making compromises to make sure the patient would survive in the best possible shape, but how could anyone want anything other than someone they loved to recover fully?

She just hoped that Misty would recover, in whatever shape that was possible now. And that, perhaps, one day she could forgive Claire for making the hard choice needed to keep her alive. But even if Misty didn’t, Claire would still be content for having saved Misty’s life.


End file.
